No. 12 Buckeyes Drop 3-0 Decision at No. 14 Hawai'i

HONOLULU - The No. 12 Ohio State men's volleyball team opened its 2014 season late Thursday with a three-set (22-25, 21-25, 21-25) loss to No. 14 Hawai'i on the first day of the Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Invitational in Honolulu.

Redshirt freshman Driss Guessousand junior Andrew Lutz led the Buckeyes (0-1) with eight kills apiece with Guessous adding two blocks. Junior Shawn Herron had six kills on 11 attempts for a .545 hitting percentage and chipped in three blocks (2s, 1a). Junior Michael Henchyfinished with five kills and a team-best four blocks (2s, 2a).

Freshmen Christy Blough, Miles Johnson, and Gabriel Domecus earned the first start of their young careers in the match. Blough paced the Buckeye offense with 29 assists, while Johnson finished with four kills at outside and Domecus has two digs as libero.

Brook Sedore led the Rainbow Warriors (1-0) with 11 kills and three service aces, while Sinisa Zarkovic totaled nine kills and two service aces. Taylor Averill finished eight kills and a team-best two blocks.

Hawai'i errors led to a 4-4 score to open the first set. A Warrior kill triggered a 5-2 Hawai'i run to put the home team up 10-7 and force an Ohio State timeout. UH held on to its lead throughout the rest of the set and another Hawai'i kill resulted in another Buckeye timeout at 22-17. Ohio State came out of the break with back-to-back kills by Herron and one by Johnson to cut the UH lead to two at 22-20. The home team, however, maintained its lead and won the set, 25-22.

The Warriors grabbed a quick 5-1 advantage in set two and pushed ahead to 13-7. A kill by Lutz followed by a pair of Buckeye solo blocks cut the deficit to four at 14-10 and a kill from Guessous brought Ohio State within two at 22-19. A kill by Lutz stalled a potential set point at 23-21, but UH held on to win 25-21.

Kills from Johnson and Henchy and a solo block by Guessous led to a 5-4 Buckeye lead to start the third set. UH responded with a 4-0 rally to jump ahead 8-5 and used another run for a 12-8 lead. The Warriors held on to their four-point margin throughout the rest of the set and won the match with a 25-21 victory.

The Buckeyes face No. 7 UCLA on the second day of the Outrigger Invitational Friday at the Stan Sheriff Center. The match will start at 9 p.m. ET/4 p.m. HT.